Starting a Non-profit Business

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New Member

I'm researching heavily in an attempt to gather all the necessary information needed in order to form a non-profit business. A daunting task for someone who has never owned a business, so I've also been reading business articles to gather additional helpful information along the way. It hasn't been formed yet and is still in the planning phase. Any steps and/or precautions you might mention?

I've begun contacting individuals who're professionals in their fields to become a part of the administrative board. I really want to have a large portion of everything in place before meeting with them. One thing that I am concerned about is someone stealing the name before it is formed. Is it at all possible to register a trademark prior to it being officially formed? What precautions can I take to prevent this? ….especially if I cannot register a name yet.

Another thing I am worried about is proper funding to get the ball rolling. What could I do to raise money without risking someone else starting a duplicate?

I am expecting to invest around $1000+ just to get the website started. Designing our logos I might save us additional cost. They won’t look cheap since I’m a perfectionist and experienced in some web development. We’ll probably end up hiring a professional web developer to implement protection of our copyrights and our public image as a high-end educational etc. resource. Heavy advertisement will be an absolute must. Pay-per-click, banners and etc… will be a must to be the first thing seen in search engines. Expensive, I know. The website is a central part. It will not however, be the only element. Should I worry about the website after it is established to avoid the additional starting investment? That is what I am considering. To be honest I cannot cough up that amount of cash beyond the purchasing the main domains.

I have begun drafting some legal drafts of how our company will work. After getting everything into place I'll discuss it further with the board before seeing a legal expert. The reason why I am forging legal documents such as copyright now of how our company will work is to protect our organization from content theft. Any administrative members bent on joining to simply act in a manner that would make our organization look bad would not affect it. At least that is what I am hoping.

Any advice, materials or even opinions are most welcome. Thank you for reading my thread.

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New Member

I found the Logo Design Team. The reviews on them are positive. I've already created a rough sketch with an idea of what it'll be. After reading an article, I decided for powerful simplistic logo that stands for the non-profit perfectly. Inkscape illustrator, a program I'm not familiar with, is what I was considering before. Having everything together plus knowing who I am going to use ahead of time from all this research will pay off in the long run. In the end this non-profit will be top-grade. After reading up more information, an unregistered trademark [sup]TM[/sup] is still protected. Not like that of a registered, but that can come later.

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New Member

Any new business needs a detailed plan, Mission Statement. This gives the reader the all the relevant information he needs to
make a sound judgment on the merits of the project. This document then needs to be examined by a legal expert to make sure
that the business is lawful. Note, the name of the business up to this stage need not be disclosed and you can now carry on
promoting the Mission Statement to potential board members, business angles etc, etc. Once you have the company structure
in place and ready to start developing your publicity campaign and website you can then consider the Corporate name aspect.
As the business is a 'not for profit' operation what would be the incentive for people to copy your business model!

I hope my comments are of interest and wish you the very best of luck.

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New Member

I'll address your trademark question, as trademark law is what I know best. I would recommend you go ahead and get the ball rolling on registering your trademark with the USPTO. If it is not currently in use, but you plan to in the future, you can apply for TM registration based on an "intent to use" the trademark in the future. Once your trademark is in use, you can file an allegation of use. I would recommend you hire an attorney for the trademark process as there are some pitfalls that can be avoided along the way. I hope this helps some.

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